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Iraq pullout must go slowly, troops warn

President-elect Barack Obama may have won the White House largely on his economic platform, but he appears to have some work ahead of him to forge a connection with one important slice of his new constituency — America’s service members.

Obama “hasn’t served,” said Army Capt. Alexander Misiewicz, who spent a year as an operating room nurse at the combat support hospital in Baghdad and is now assigned to Fort Hamilton, N.Y.

“The closest he comes is that his grandfather was in Patton’s Army,” Misiewicz said. “He needs to understand the sacrifices people are making and dedicate a great deal of support to the men and women who are serving their country.”

Obama’s call to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 18 months “means we’ll have to go back later, probably in greater numbers, and spill more blood to get the job done,” Misiewicz said. “The Iraqis are stepping up, but they’re not quite there yet.”

He said he’d like to see Obama spend some time getting to know the special needs of the military people, who make up a relatively small segment of the population, before he makes any decisions.

Marine Cpl. Mark Malagisi, 23, an aircraft navigation systems technician with Marine Air Logistics Squadron 29, Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., voted for Sen. John McCain largely on the Iraq war, which he said needs to be a top priority.

“As long as we’re going to be in this war, we may as well do it right so we don’t have to go back in later,” Malagisi said. “We can’t have a president ... pull us out of this war right now.”

First Lt. Paul White, a former enlisted soldier who has deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, agreed that Obama needs to be careful about pulling troops out of Iraq too early.

“If we pull the troops out, I think everything we’ve strived for would be for nothing,” said White, a combat engineer with the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Even though things seem to be getting better in Iraq, the point at which substantial U.S. combat forces should be withdrawn is still “a long way” off, he said.

Lt. Col. Ralph Siegrist, rear detachment commander for the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 108th Field Artillery, said Obama’s election has put a lot of service members “on edge.”

He worries about the military budget under Obama. “He said he’s going to cut all these programs,” Siegrist said. “We don’t know what this president is going to ask of us.”

But Army Maj. Chris Shields, executive officer for the Fires Battalion, 5th Brigade, 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, said he doesn’t believe the military will be turned upside down under Obama’s leadership.

“I don’t thing he’s going to change a lot of things,” he said. “I don’t think he’s going to pull out of Iraq that quickly, unless he wants to let it fall into anarchy.”

His advice to Obama: “Don’t cut the military’s budget when you get into office. It’s a very large and convenient thing to cut, but it’s a very short-sighted fix to economic problems. We’ll just pay for it later on when we have to go into another conflict.”

Shields said he voted for Obama, though he called it “a hard decision for me.”

He voted not on military issues, but rather on Obama’s stance on the environment and his message about getting the U.S. “weaned off a gasoline-based economy.”

In fact, a number of service members interviewed by Military Times voted mainly on broader issues — with the economy atop the list.

The issue that dwarfs all else is “the state of the economy right now,” said Navy Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Linzell Walker, with Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 14 in Norfolk, Va. “To have these [financial] companies collapse is just unreal.”

“I plan to have children and I don’t want to go to the grocery story and pay $4 for a gallon of milk,” said Coast Guard Storekeeper 1st Class Alexis Cook, who is stationed in Washington D.C. “I’m not hurting right now, but I am feeling the recession.”

“I definitely think the economy is the big thing ... it’s hurting everybody,” said Marine Sgt. Steven Castro, with Marine Headquarters Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C., who voted for Obama.

The economy “should be one of the first problems he tackles. Take care of homes and jobs and you don’t have to worry about a lot of other things.”

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Andrew Scutro, Trista Talton, Matthew Cox, Gina Cavallaro and Amy McCullough contributed to this story.